Keatts is already out-recruiting Pitt and he's been there less than a year.
Guesses about what a 2018 class might look like
- Thread starter gary2
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Keatts is already out-recruiting Pitt and he's been there less than a year.
It is the job of the coach to make Pitt "it". If the response is that Kevin Stallings will never attract any good players to Pitt, that is grounds to fire him.
Pitt was not "it" when Howland was hired, but he and Dixon made Pitt "it" and then some.
I’m not a Stallings fan , but to hold him entirely responsible for this mess Pitt bb is in just isn’t fair . With all the stars aligned JD couldn’t recruit the players needed to sustain the program at an elite level . There’s no way Barnes makes his moves if he did . The way recruiting was going under JD this yr would’ve have been a disaster also had he still been the coach .
Ben Howland was quoted as saying that’s Pitt couldn’t sustain this level of success due to the lack of local talent was he wrong ?
The Young /Artis class was the last decent class at Pitt . There’s something missing at Pitt , there’s reasons why kids choose Clemson , ND , Indiana , Butler and so on over Pitt and it’s just not KS fault because it was also a problem for Jamie Dixon . Until they figure out why kids choose other similar programs over Pitt nothing will change because you can’t win without talent .
The optimists in me thinks Pitt bb can be resurrected again , but I just don’t see the school paying up for a coach that can deliver the players within the rules . The danger in giving up on KS is that hiring an unknown up and comer is that if he fails there will be no fans left . Pitt needs KS to succeed at least to the point of making the coaching job at Pitt attractive enough to get a good coach . Hate him badmouth him all you want , but if you want Pitt bb to be enjoyable anytime soon root for KS to be successful .
Of course he’s entirely responsible.
It’s why he gets paid millions.
Sheesh, you’re really devoid of logic
True, but every coach at NC State has out recruited us.
NC State has hired recruiters. Gottfried did because that is what he does. He would have done the same at Pitt. Sidney Lowe wasn't great. Had a couple top recruits. Otherwise he was pretty average and getting guys just like we were. Sendek recruited well there and then at ASU because he was a very good recruiter. He just isn't a very good coach.
That isn't some great advantage for NC State because they are NC State. For 13 years we had a good coach who wasn't a very good recruiter but was a darn good coach. Now we have an awful coach, who can't recruit. Keats would be landing these guys here.
You may be underselling NC State a bit. They have a National Championship in the not too distant past, a fact which everyone is reminded of repeatedly on ESPN every year during the Jimmy V fundraisers. College hoops is also a much bigger deal in NC than maybe anywhere else, and fan enthusiasm reflects that.
Pitt fans have told on themselves over the last few seasons. Just no support for the program when it isn't ranked in the top 10. Harder to recruit in an empty arena.
I have to question how much Pitt even recruited some of the players you list. Names were associated, sure, but some never even unofficially visited and some were never in play and some I think we decided we did not want.
Kisunas might be the strangest of all. All we heard were UVA and PItt. I don't believe he visited either unofficially or officially. His list of teams interested originally we a bunch of lower echelon schools. Somehow, He visits and verbals to UConn. That was very strange.
Like it or not, Pitt will most often never land players like Bradzeikis or Lazewski. Those players usually end of at a select number of schools. That is just fact.
I said early on I doubted Pitt would end up with the early names associated with us. We landed Golden (a fine recruit), Kingsby (will play behind Carr) and have one left. Maybe we land a decent grad transfer that helps with class distribution.
Anyway, we only have one more to give, with (currently) only one to give the following season. We can spend a lot of time cultivating underclassmen.
Clark's legend seems well beyond reality. I know, he had that "Oregon offer". He also had 2 previous surgeries and few other offers of note. I think it is likely he would have turned out the same as Kithcart and Manigault as not.
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And no kid gives a flying f^ck about a 30 year old National Championship. They don't care about a 40 year old one in football, either. They are picking schools based on coaches and current state of the program/facilities and little else, above board. Everything else is fluff for the reporters.
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This isn't football.
Literally to start this thread you asked if what you posted was realistic. It wasn't and even if we got it, it wouldn't have been a very good class. Now it will be terrible. And we certainly *should* have more than 1 scholarship to give in this class and the next. We have a roster of extremely unlikely to develop players we took fliers on this year. If several aren't almost immediately recruited over, Stallings isn't even trying.
We’ll never really know , but another decent player could’ve made a difference last yr .
I won't disagree that we were not all in on players like Kisunas, Nichols or even Bolton but this is a list of our realistic offers, like it or not. Would you say that this class as it stands now is an acceptable ACC recruiting class?
Clark 100% was a legit Oregon offer. He just tore his ACL while he was on his visit.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/articl...sf/2017/10/university_of_portland_basketb.amp
Considering gary2 didn't even understand how mediocre a Golden, Zegarowski, Forrester and Kisunas class would be, he might actually still think our class is ok. Good luck to him for keeping the faith, but the blue and gold glasses are distorting everything for him.
It seems likely we are going to (again) have one of the 3 worst classes in the ACC.
Hey, you gotta admire Gary's relentless optimism. I just want to know what our most optimistic Stallings poster thinks of the class that we have cobbled together out of our targets so far.
No (but there is a long way until next season and we are not done) - Golden was a worthy recruit, Kingsby fills a real need for a backup and we will still see about the one remaining (or 2) scholarship(s).
I was not in town at the time of the exhibition game. Carr looked very good on the hi-lites I saw. Frame and Stevenson filled the scorecard. Stewart had a poor shooting night. (hopefully just an off night). Davis did not play (sounds like the staff like Davis and Kene).
Carr - Stewart - Davis (sounds like he will play) - Frame - Stevenson - Chukwuka (5 and 5 in limited time) - Could be pieces (I know we played Slippery Rock)
Add Ellison, Golden, Kingsby and 1 or 2 more in 2018.
Pray that someone develops out of Brown, Ilegomah of Samson.
I have to agree going by recruiting rankings things do not look good. Other comparable schools like Vir Tech, Clemson and Wake have (on paper) recruited much better.
I do know that Stallings said last year he had 7 1/2 players. This year he said 8 to 10.
I do know that Stallings has had more good things to say about this group than anything he ever had to say about the group that comprised last season's bench.
We will have a much better look at where the team is headed (good or bad) very soon.
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Maybe Clark had a very soft offer and that is why he was required to work out.
I doubt very seriously that Clark still had an Oregon offer (or many (any) other offers) afrer his injury.
So Pitt probably out recruited no one. Probably we were the only team willing to accept him AFTER he was seriously hurt on his Oregon recruiting visit? That is absolutely great recruiting!!!
We recruited a player almost no one wanted because of his injury history and guess what: He got injured before the season even started. What a surprise.
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Look, these kids right now are so young, its just impossible to know. Carr and Frame look to me to be pieces who are ACC level players right away. Top of the league talent..no. Middle of the pack talent...eh? But they certainly are worthy pieces on a bad ACC team. Outside of that, I don't know. I think our perception of the team is going to be skewed a little bit because we are going to score 65 points or so most nights, and guys like Stewart and Stevenson (and maybe Kene) will put up numbers. But as to whether those are legit pieces simply because they are putting up numbers...who knows?
Do I think, right now, that this group plus Golden, Kingsby, Ellison and spring recruit X is going to be enough to make a significant climb from the bottom of the league next season to save KS's job? I don't know. It's possible. KS is not a bad coach, and we do have bodies. It's really on the shoulders of Carr-Stewart-Frame-Ellison...our bigs just aren't going to be that good, but maybe...just maybe those 4 can really form a solid perimeter foursome that can take us from 2-3 ACC wins to 8-9 acc wins..I think that's going to be what's needed for a year 4 of the KS era. I hope we can do it.
